Jim Kring

Hi @kosist and @wolfkil. We're working hard on a VIPM 2020.1 build. There are lots of improvements, one of which is that it does not use a sign-in to download packages from the VIPM Community Repository. You can get the latest release candidate and help us test in the VIPM 2020 beta forum. Sign up here to get access to that forum. We're working hard to make VIPM work well with new versions of LabVIEW. This latest 2020 release was difficult to full test, due to COVID-19 during the beta and launch, and a reduced number of beta testers. We're hoping VIPM 2020.1 addresses the issues people are facing, and works great for people. Thanks for your help in testing, if you're able. -Jim

Thanks for letting us know, James! Yes, 2020 had a lot of work put into it and the beta/launch was in the middle of COVID-19, so things didn't get as many eyes as usual. We do have a version 2020.1 in beta right now (if you can't access this, please be sure you sign up for the beta and/or send me a PM).

Hi Dan, Glad you're exploring VIPM 2020. What do you mean by "load packages"? Are you saying that you'd like to add them to VIPM's package list? You can double-click the package and open it in VIPM to install it. Also, in VIPM 2020.1 (currently in beta) we've added an "Add to Library" right-click option on Packages in Windows File Explorer. Does that answer your question? -Jim

Glad you figured it out, @Justin Thomas, and it was just an email issue. Hope Design Palette is working well for you.

Hi Everyone @Mads Toppe, @szymsciupak, @wolfkil, This is a known issue that affects some people behind corporate firewalls. In VIPM 2020.1 (still in beta), you will be able to download packages without a sign-in and hopefully this will resolve the pain point. Thanks for your patience. -Jim

Hi Antoine, Thanks for posting this. I'm not sure what the issue is. I don't see the same thing. One thing that's different between your and my systems is you have a version "1" in the list. Would you be willing to send me a copy of that package? I suspect it's not a released package, but it appears to be causing some issues. Don't delete it quite yet, because I'd love to know what's going on.

Hi Thomas, Actually, we use some 32-bit shared libraries, including OS libraries and also some 3rd party libraries, like the OpenG Zip Tools. For the MacOS beta, VIPM migrated to using command line zip/unzip tools and dropped a couple minor usability features that maybe nobody will notice (like extracting lvlib/lvclass icons from the XML file, which requires zlib deflation). However, for MacOS, we figured it was better to have things mostly working OK in 64-bit than not at all. For Windows, we wouldn't want to lose any functionality. I hear you about the memory limit issue. I hope that's helpful information, and please know we're not hesitating to explore 64-bit, for no good reasons. Regards, -Jim

A fix for this is currently in the VIPM 2020.1 beta.

This feature is currently in the VIPM 2020.1 beta.

Hi @ThomasGutzler. Thanks for the great idea! I'm curious what you need 64-bit support for, specifically? Are there any problems created by having VIPM for Windows be a 32-bit application? Would making it 64-bit help in specific ways? Thanks for letting us know.

This is in currently in progress. If you're in the VIPM 2020 Beta you can help us test it, when it's ready.

Hi Sam. I'm going to check on this right away. Thanks for reporting this. Hopefully, we can get you going...

Oh, it looks like you actually have the Flat UI Controls (and the OpenG Toolkit) package installed, but the JKI Design Palette is not installed -- that's expected. If that's correct, the Flat JKI Controls will be located on disk here: Do you see those?

Hi Scott, The JKI design palette is currently only Windows compatible. I could look into what it would take to get a Mac build working. It’s distributed as a PPL, and has to be compiled in each platform. you can choose to ignore the dependency, and continue the installation of the flat UI controls. You would then need to browse to the installation location do use the controls. thanks for your patience. As you know, we just got VIPM 2020 working on MacOS Jim

The VI Package Builder could specify the name of the VI to show in the palettes, or be smarter in general about which VI to show in the palettes. Sometimes it opens the wrong VI.

Some advanced users are asking for support to install VIPM for Windows onto a Docker container. This would allow creating fully automated build processes that spin up virtual machines that have LabVIEW and VIPM installed on them, so that VI Packages can be created automatically.

Hi Thomas. That’s super cool! Thanks for showing the screenshots. I’m glad to hear how easy that was for you and hope it’s helpful to you and your team. -Jim

I’m glad to hear it’s working for you!

Thanks Sam! We’ll fix this in the shipping API.

Great. For what it's worth, a couple things we're considering: 1) Disable/configure the hotkey -- sometimes it pops up with just Ctrl+Space for some reason. 2) Allow pointing to other folders of custom controls.

@Sam Taggart. There are error logs here: C:\ProgramData\JKI\VIPM\error

What happens if you reboot?

Thank you for posting this! I'll forward it along to NI to take a look into it. Well, only NI can fix LVInternal errors 🤷‍♂️ Still, I'll ping them, since I'm sure they care to know what the issue is.

You're welcome. Any requests to make it more awesome?

Hi Sam. VIPM 2020 works a little bit differently. It hangs around in memory for a little bit in case someone uses it again -- this way, it's much more responsive. Yet, it's changed the observed behavior around exactly when the package list refreshes. This is something we're working on and should be improved in the next release.